An apparatus for conveying articles of clothing supported on hangers is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,435, dated Dec. 16, 1980, to Weiss et al., which shows a sorting conveyor used to sort articles of clothing for delivery to customers. The sorting conveyor is made up of a plurality of carrier assemblies coupled to each other in an end-to-end fashion. Each carrier assembly includes several latch receptacles having a latch mechanism adapted to support the hooked end of a hanger within the receptacle. Each latch mechanism in turn includes a latch member and a separate torsion spring which normally biases the latch member to block the opening of the receptacle and support the hooked end of a hanger within the receptacle.
In normal operation, the latch mechanisms wear and need to be repaired or replaced. However, typically the entire carrier assembly must be disassembled in order to repair or replace a single latch mechanism. Upon disassembly, the torsion springs frequently fly out of the carrier assembly thus creating a serious safety hazard and making reassembly of the carrier more difficult. Each carrier assembly also has many different components assembled together with rivets and other types of fasteners, thus making disassembly and reassembly a difficult and time consuming procedure.